Little CAPSTONE cubesat ready to launch on big moon mission next month
CAPSTONE is scheduled to launch between May 3 and May 15. (Delayed)…
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/launch-of-nasa-s-capstone-cubesat-moon-mission-delayed-to-june-27/ar-AAYNkUB
The 55-pound (25 kilograms) CAPSTONE won't land on the moon. Its chief objective is to verify the stability of a near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the moon — a highly elliptical path that no spacecraft has ever occupied before.
NASA plans to put its Gateway space station — a key part of NASA's Artemis program of moon exploration — into a lunar NRHO, and CAPSTONE is tasked with testing it out.
The cubesat will also perform some navigation and communications tests, some of them in tandem with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling Earth's nearest neighbor for more than a decade.
***What is a CAPSTONE?
KEYSTONE
Space
55 (5:5)
Cube (size of microwave)
Gateway
Capstone/Keystone
Beyond 40,000ft view
When the government tells you to DONT LOOK UP…
Look the fuck up